Buhari receives National Identity Card

President Muhammadu Buhari has received his National Identity Card.
It was presented to him by the Director General of the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, Barr Chris Onyemenam, at the State House.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the presentation, the NIMC boss disclosed that the database of about 20 million Nigerians had already been captured.
“We did two things. First we demonstrated to the President how the national identification number can be used to confirm the identity of an individual even if the person is not present and that is the reason why we said the identification number is a security number, because with that and if you have access to our data base, you can confirm the identity of an individual.
“Second, we presented the electronic card to the President and we demonstrated to him how it will be taken round. This is one Rome that was not built in a day, slow and steady with the help of harmonization and integration, that he has directed, we are getting rapidly far more than we ever did before, in trying to unite our data base, and I demonstrated that.
“So basically, what we did was to activate the electronic identity and the security on it and subsequently, the payment solutions on the card and I explained to the President, that there are certain applications on the card and this activation that he has done cut across the entire activation.
“What is then left is for each agency, once they are using their own application to then customize it with their security on it and then control the use of that application.” He said
According to him, government over these years did not provide for data capture as it was the responsibility of two consortium.
He added that the concession to the two consortium was cancelled in February, saying no provision for data capture was made in the 2015 budget.
He continued: “like I said before, it was the responsibilities of two consortium who did not deliver. Government over these years never provided for data capture because it had issued concession to two consortia, it was in February that those two concessions were cancelled and in 2015 budget, there was no provision for data capture and what we are doing, that is the most judicious and rationale way to do it.
“It is to continue to use the pilot infrastructure that we have which is just 2,500 equipment and to collaborate with other government agencies at three levels.
“If you are capturing data, use the equipment we have specified so that that data is good for you and good for us; if you have data already, give us the specimen and we will cross check and tell you what you need to do or we do it ourselves and take that data from you; going forward, you will be bound by the decision.”